finished afghan, circle horse quilt patch

 Experiment from yesterday with circle patterns... not the best example of the type of work but I had never tried it before and it was a great learning experience.  I think the patch took me off and on about four or five hours so not something I'd want to do many of... and yet, maybe they would get quicker once I knew what I was doing and had all the pieces worked out beforehand.  My own pieces cut from printer paper, some 'guesswork' involved as well.  Appliqued onto the white background and topstitched down.

Esme minecrafting this morning, wearing her sweater as she was cold.

She has also discovered SpongeB games now, and has been playing those as well as making her fireworks in Minecraft and new houses everywhere.  

The finished '2 person' afghan.  Mark says 'husband shown for scale'.  I finished it up last night and it was on the bed all night.  Very warm.  It measures about 80 by 72?  It was 273 stitches wide on the circular needle and that was the maximum width I could pull off - have been working on it since mid-October 2012.

I am back at work tomorrow early.. and Tuesday.  Esme's IEP meeting is Wednesday.

garden bits and projects

I got the first dried Bosnian beans today from those I had put on strings two weeks ago. It is a lovely variety that I do want to help preserve! The Provider green beans from last years seeds are starting to put on beans and are producing well. There was a pumpkin the other day and a tiny blue Hubbard that said it was finished and wasn't getting any bigger. The lima beans are beginning to put on pods and there is a tomato or two that is ripe nearly every day - and a few that are working on pinking up. There are eggplants and zucchini and a single cucumber. One ear on the field corn looks ready and all of the rest are still very tiny... end of the row and pollination etc.


The grey basketweave scarf/shawl thing I was working on




Esme is actually wearing two dresses - one over the other, because she thinks it is pretty. It is, but I swear it must be hot! She wants to help me cook and sew in the house and pretended the other day that she was going to work and her toys were children who had to stay home and be good and eat their crackers and watch tv and play. She 'likes you go to work Mama' now.. but of course that won't last very long and she is just working things out to see what results she gets.

She calls this orange dress her cook apron - and is happy she can put it on almost all by herself. She wants me to wear my 'work cook dress' as well and we can cook food downstairs. She helped me make garlic bread last night. I got the garlic down, melted the butter, got the pan and aluminum foil and asked her to spread out the bread, spoon on the butter and then sprinkle the garlic over it. She did all of that very happily! Afterwards, and while I stressed we keep an eye on the garlic bread to see when it browned, she helped spoon ravioli and carrots from cans onto our plates and dump the excess into tupperware containers. She thought she was so big and helping to make dinner - and she ate every last little bit on her plate!

I also got her to eat a piece of cucumber today - not that she liked it. I told her she couldn't be good at cooking unless she knew what things tasted like. She agreed to that idea. Her favorite pretends lately are 'super mailman' who rides a bicycle and throws mail, and a cross between chef and magician. She takes her big rubber frog out in the sand with this tiny 'dissection' looking kit of a playdough plastic knife and a tray and a pot and I ask her what in the world she is pretending - she says she is making pie for the frog to eat and she needs the plastic knife to cut the pie for the frog and the pot has soup and the tray is his plate. Never assume with this child - as Daddy said as well today, you ask her she will have an explanation, but it will rarely be anything we could have thought up ourselves!

Our science experiment today is what will and will not be floated by a helium balloon. I am asking her to 'estimate' if something is heavy or light. If it will go down (be heavy) or go up (be light). She brings me two things and I ask her which one is the heavier one and she has to estimate or guess. She really likes the game and I can see her gears turning!

She is also getting VERY tall. There is this top shelf we store games on so she does not get into them all of the time without asking. She can now get her black chair and reach all the way up there to put something back after she is done with it. She can't quite reach all the way up to get something off yet - but she is so close. It is only a short matter of time!



I saw this pattern in a Japanese craft book and spent about an hour trying to figure out what the English name for it was. I really wanted to try it. For the record the quilt pattern is called 'apple cores' and after using that as a search term I found a template very quickly. I made two patches and put them together and decided this would be a new scrap project for me - build up some little scraps and then take a day to make a few patches and sew them on. It is so pretty and looks a lot more 'complex' than it was, which is always nice! I saw a beautiful Grandmother's Garden (hexagons) pattern again as well... but one thing at a time. Wait, was that ME that said that? I am never one thing at a time. I am, however, often limiting myself to one thing of a TYPE at a time... sometimes not even that.

I have a cotton tank top I was working on knitting last month that may be done soon. And I have that knit garter stitch blanket that is about 3/4 done now (after nearly two years). I have laundry going and soup cooking and an eggplant to decide how to prepare. I cut up and froze everything from the garden that did not go in the soup and prepared all of the dried herbs from a few days ago to put in containers. It has been a nice Friday off :)

Things on my Mind
With vacations (two shorter ones than last year - broken up this year because of scheduling conflicts) coming up I need to keep my eyes on what I want to accomplish.

a.) zippered lunchbox. This is a big project, and one I need to do. My lunchbox is coming to the end of its long useful life. Hey, it's me. Yes I could go buy one. But, I know I don't have to.

b.) harlequin or chevron type blanket - this is just an idea to add to the list, not something to 'get done.' I'm thinking larger squares or triangles at least 4 to 6 inches across.

c.) brush case - Mark says this is a little more 'Martha Stewart' than usual for me - but I am actually basing the idea for this off of what I saw in nomadic household items during my research into weaving. And also, they keep showing up in the Japanese books I am looking through. I'm thinking a sewn one, with a zipper or a button. It keeps the brush (and the hair oil it collects) from gathering dust from the air around it. In our case the brushes are sometimes also hard to locate again after we have used them - and a simple box sometimes collects lots of other things as well.

d.) skirt for me - I have several large swathes of fabric I have been reserving to make some clothes for myself. I have gotten so much use out of the yellow one from last year that it would be worth time to make another one.

e.) Other clothes for Esme, of course... need to finish sewing the sheep shirt I cut out and never sewed while she still has a chance of fitting into it!

f.) sashiko

crafting one day at a time

peach zinnias

Lots of little projects to pick up on a bit here, a bit there. I began putting a few more rows on my knitted blanket begun way back last Spring. I had put it up away when it began to get 'hot'.. and recently it is time to take it up again. Inspired by my browsing yesterday, I found my bag of old patchwork, once meant for a quilt backing for Esme. I cheated back then, and used a big piece of striped flannel instead. That worked, and she still has that quilt on her bed often. Esme saw the quilt pieces and remembered it was for her. She was so excited Mama was working on her quilt again. She even told Daddy she couldn't go to bed yet, because Mama wasn't done with her blanket. She doesn't know it would take months, even if I did work on it whenever I could.



the blanket in March
it is much bigger now

Sometimes I feel like I've lost my spark with crafting. Other days I know I'll get back to it when really important and/or seasonally important things have finished. With also working full time (which we are blessed with, I must remind myself) it is a wonder sometimes I do much else at all. Winter is approaching (after fall, Mark says.. remember we have FOUR seasons here...) There is always cleaning to do in the house, and I often do not do as much as would be good, but enough to be practical. Esme's wardrobe has mostly 'rode' during the late summer here - she has not been outgrowing things at the pace she was this Spring. Some things are getting in a worse condition and needing to be replaced. It is nice to wait until the end of a 'season' if possible, and that is what I have been doing. This fall or winter type dress caught my eye as inspiration to cash in on soon. I could see myself making two or three of those to replace several summer sundresses that are now too small to be saved and well.. not very fall/winter at all. The worn out clothes will likely become quilt piece fodder.


2 by 2 inch scrap squares... slowly growing patchwork
one of the reasons I do not let little fabric bits go to waste

I am slightly inspired to do more in patchwork. Cold mornings turn my thoughts to warm blankets and 'comfort' things in the house. I stare at full bed quilts and wonder 'why can't I get mine done?' Then I remember: I fear the big 'sheet o'fabric' needing to be bound to another big 'sheet o'fabric' laid out on a floor somewhere and mercy to the creatures of the household running around while I try to get something done with pins. It feels like something I should borrow the office for... someday when I have enough time to transfer such a project up there and get it done. And then it would have to be sewn - and I would have to keep my sewing machine there until it was done or transfer the whole pinned mess back down here and worry about losing pins onto the floor. I fear that will not be anytime soon, so I keep putting off the projects and never actually getting them to that stage. Awful.

Little Quilts

I'm making bassinet sized quilts for my Etsy shop, just like the ones I made when Esme was born. They measure 17 or 18 inches across just like our Arms Reach Cosleeper bassinet. (The ads for it say it measures about 21 inches across but the interior dimension is a bit smaller)

The Cosleeper has been one of the best things we bought when preparing for a baby. It still fits Esme at nearly 6 months and over 15 lbs. But it is very hard to find anything sized for it, except the bassinet sheets and a few sets from the manufacturer.

I really wanted rabbit quilts for Esme, so I made her several sized for the bassinet. These ones in the shop aren't bunny quilts (yet) but they are sweet, very washable and durable. I think I must have washed the other ones a hundred times each and they are still looking great.

Esme also likes to use her quilts as toys now that she is a bit bigger. I put one in the car seat to cover her feet and she ends up waving it in the air and patting at the stripes and bold colors.



I'll be adding more periodically at the KnitOwl toy shop.